The present invention concerns oral lubricants for mouth protectors; more specifically, it relates to a lubricating composition effective to reduce the discomfort of wearing athletic mouth protectors.
In many contact sports, athletes wear plastic mouth protectors to guard against injury to the teeth, gums and other structures of the oral cavity. The protection provided by the protectors is quite effective. Despite this useful protection, the mouth protector can be uncomfortable to wear.
During the physical exertion and excitement of athletic competition, the athlete's oral cavity becomes quite dry. As a result, the plastic mouth protector adheres to the teeth and dry mucous membranes, a condition known as xerostomia, causing the athlete discomfort. In addition, athletes may experience difficulty in breathing and speech disturbances. The plastic taste of the mouth protector further adds to these discomforts and inconveniences. Consequently, some athletes prefer the risk of not wearing a mouth protector to the discomfort of its use. The probability that the athlete will choose not to wear a mouth protector is particularly high during practice, but it is also likely during games when referees are not actively enforcing the rules which require the wearing of mouth protectors.
Because of the risk of serious injury and the difficulty of enforcing the rules which require the use of mouth protectors, there is a substantial need for a means to eliminate the problems associated with the wearing of a mouth protector. Applicants are not aware of any prior oral lubricant effective to eliminate the problems caused by the wearing of mouth protectors.
The use of saliva substitutes is well known. Such artificial saliva compositions are formulated specifically for use by patients such as those who are undergoing radiotherapy to the head or neck because the radiation therapy severely depresses salivary gland function. See Shannon, I. L., McCrary and E. N. Starke, "A Saliva Substitute for Use By Xerostomic Patients Undergoing Radiotherapy to the Head and Neck, " Oral Surgery, vol. 44, no. 5, (Nov. 1977), pp. 656-661. However, the formulations of these saliva substitutes are made up to approximate the composition of normal human saliva as closely as possible. The simulation of the composition of normal human saliva is necessitated by the fact that such patients experience a variety of problems such as increased dental caries, changes to intraoral soft tissues such as cracking and bleeding of the mucosa, decreased hardness of the enamel and painful swallowing, all associated with the impaired function of the salivary glands.
As can be seen, such saliva substitutes are not formulated primarily to lubricate, but rather for therapeutic purposes. Consequently, they do not contain the appropriate ingredients and the appropriate concentrations of the appropriate ingredients to allow their use as lubricants for athletic mouth protectors. Testing conducted by Applicants indicates that saliva substitutes are totally inadequate as a lubricant for mouth protectors during periods of physical exertion and that saliva substitutes do not eliminate the disagreeable taste of the mouth protector.
Further, many saliva substitutes contain additional ingredients which are inappropriate or unnecessary for use in a lubricant for athletic mouth protectors. In particular, the relatively high electrolyte content of saliva substitutes, a result of the formulation of the composition so as to simulate normal human saliva, makes them unsuitable for use in periods of strenuous activity.
It is also known in the art to formulate a mouth protector of a plastic or vinyl resin impregnated with a flavoring such as mint flavoring. Wearers of such mouth protectors do not experience significant improvement in the frequency of xerostomic conditions. Further, the amount of flavoring released by the mouthguard continually decreases until a point is reached at which the amount of flavoring released is insufficient to overcome the unpleasant taste of the mouthguard.